The Precision Oncology Lab is led by School of Medicine researcher Syamantak Khan, PhD. The laboratory's primary focus is understanding how cancer evades various treatments and uses this understanding to innovate precision oncology strategies to address the overarching challenge of therapeutic resistance.
The Precision Oncology Lab is particularly interested in developing novel molecular imaging tools and therapeutic interventions to address heterogeneity and metabolic reprogramming in cancer.
Why Precision Oncology?
No two cancers are the same. Heterogeneity is cancer's weapon for disease progression and evasion from various treatments. To overcome therapeutic resistance in cancer, researchers must accurately model and study the inter-patient and intra-patient tumor heterogeneity. Resistance to drugs and radiotherapy, resulting in disease recurrence, becomes inevitable when cancers are heterogeneous and genetically diverse. Therefore, strategies must be developed to personalize therapy to improve the clinical care of cancer patients.
Precision Oncology Conference presentations
2026
- Suthar P, Rao P, Khan S. Differential Methylation in Matched Tumor–Normal Tissues Identifies MEIS1 Locus Dysregulation with Prognostic Significance in Head and Neck Cancer. 12th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer, July 18–22, 2026, Boston, MA, United States. (Oral)
- Das N, Iweha E, Newton-Northup J, Serasinghe M, Bokolo P, Yadav P, Rottinghaus S, Yadav N, Hennkens HM, Anderson CJ, Khan S. ¹⁶¹Tb Demonstrates Size-Dependent Advantages Over ¹⁷⁷Lu in Spheroid Model and Enhanced Lipid Peroxidation When Combined with SSTR2 Antagonist. In vitro and In vivo Oncology. Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging; 2026 May 30; Los Angeles, CA, United States. The Journal of Nuclear Medicine; c2026. (Poster)
- Biswas P, Anand S, Tassone PT, Khan S. Role of acetylcholine in Perineural Invasion of Head and Neck Cancers: Insights from Patient-Derived Organoids. 2026 International Cancer Neuroscience Symposium; 2026 February 18; Houston, TX, United States. (Poster)
- Heyne O, Biswas P, Das N, Sengupta S, Khan S. Investigation of Neurotransmitter Exposure on Cancer Cells via Impedance. NextGen Pathway Symposium, Rolla, March 12-13, 2026 (Poster)
2025
- Das N, Melemenidis S, Dutta S, Kim DY, Loo BW, Pratx G, Khan S. Flash radiobiology of isoeffective tumor control: from in vitro spheroids to in vivo xenografts. FLASH Biology. 71st Annual International Meeting of the Radiation Research Society (RRS); 2025 September 24; San Juan, PR, United States. (Oral) Scholar in Training Award
- Das N, Khan S. Radiation-induced DNA-SCAR for direct quantification of Poisson rate of lethal events. 71st Annual International Meeting of the Radiation Research Society (RRS); 2025 September 24; San Juan, PR, United States. (Oral.) Early Career Investigator Award
